Keats on the Intellect of Places

We afterwards moved away a space, and saw the whole (waterfall) more mild, streaming silverly through the trees. What astonished me more than any thing is the tone, the coloring, the slate, the stone, the moss, the rock-weed; or, if I may so say, the intellect, the countenance of such places. The space, the magnitude of mountains and waterfalls are well imagined before one sees them; but this countenance or intellectual tone must surpass every imagination and defy any remembrance. I shall learn poetry here and shall henceforth write more than ever, for the abstract endeavor of being able to add a mite to that mass of beauty which is harvested from these grand materials, by the finest spirits, and put into ethereal existence for the relish of one’s fellows. — Letter from John Keats to Tom Keats in June, 1818, about a tour or hike through Lancashire. Emphasis mine.